Canadians around the globe are showing out on the pitch, but striker Cyle Larin hasn’t been able to find his footing at Feyenoord.
Is Larin in danger of being left off Canada’s squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup? TSN Soccer analyst Steven Caldwell joins Luke Wileman to discuss in the latest edition of Race for the Roster.
Luke Wileman: Welcome along to Race for the Roster where Steven Caldwell has the weekly task of predicting Canada’s squad for the World Cup next summer and also the starting 11 for their opening game of the tournament in Toronto.
Let’s start, as always, by looking at the current squad projection from Steven, here are the 26 for 26 you can see the players he has locked in there - yet to lock in a goalkeeper, one central defender space up available as well as a midfielder and a striker yet to be locked in.
Here are this week’s headlines and some good news as Alphonso Davies made his Bayern Munich return following a nine-month absence due to a torn ACL. It was a brief appearance for Davies in the Champions League on Tuesday and then he did play 30 minutes against Mainz on the weekend.
Elsewhere, Ismael Kone scoring for Sassuolo for a second consecutive week with a stunning goal, this time against AC Milan in a 2-2 draw that knocked Milan out of the top spot in the Serie A table.
Tani Oluwaseyi scored his first career UEFA Champions League goal, the 10th different Canadian to score in the competition all time, and Jonathan David amongst the goals as well as he scored in a second consecutive Champions League game, this time in Juventus’ 2-0 win over Pafos that put them into a playoff spot.
All of that brings us to our Form Tracker, which is an analytical average of each player’s last five performances.
We’re focusing on Cyle Larin today, still with just the one goal for Feyenoord, he’s played just 24 minutes for the club since early November - those minutes coming as a substitute in Thursday’s 4-3 Europa League loss to Steaua Bucharest. Feyenoord had led 3-1 in the game, and after the match manager Robin van Persie said his four substitutes, including Larin, were very poor.
So, Steven, we talked a lot about Cyle Larin and the need for good club form to try to make sure he was in Jesse Marsch’s 11 for the World Cup, let alone the 26, but do you see right now there’s a danger he might not make the World Cup at all?
Steven Caldwell: I think there is a danger of that Luke, he’s dropping rapidly, and that’s because of his lack of form. It’s because of the fact that he is not consistent enough with his performances, he’s not getting enough minutes.
So when you look at the squad and you see the competition at that position, Larin’s a player that I had on the team and the starting 11 for a long, long time, expecting that form to come, but he’s not showing us any signs of that.
So he’s probably looking over his shoulder now, especially with [Daniel] Jebbison doing really well in the Championship, scoring striker’s goals, great goals.
I think when you see Larin and you think about ‘yes, he has experience, but is he still capable of playing at this top level?’ That’s going to be a question mark for Jesse Marsch and this Canadian side.
